It is rare for an entire album to be devoted to that much under-rated quality of "ordinariness", but this collection of 10 originals from Ami Williamson comes with her insisting she "wanted to write songs about things in life that typically go unrecognised and can be under-valued". So she sings about the importance of the joys and innocence of childhood (Don't Grow Up So Fast); empathy with girlfriends (Girlfriends); the timeless attractiveness of pearls (Pearls); the beauty of quilts and quilting (The Quilt); the desire to elicit approval from parents (Proud); and a daughter's admiration for her famous father (Your Biggest Fan). The end result is an album that has a tender centre, but is wonderfully honest in the same way that Loudon Wainwright III makes simplicity so potent and resonant. It is sweet (acoustic guitar, lots of strings and dulcet vocals), intensely Australian, romantic in an old fashioned and very rural kind of way, and, like her father's music (did I mention she is the daughter of John Williamson?), designed to touch the sentimental and authentically Australian part of our psyche. You'd be a brave person to say you were not touched by this, true blue.

Album review | Ami Williamson | The Quilt

Ami Williamson

THE QUILT

The Quilt

It is rare for an entire album to be devoted to that much under-rated quality of "ordinariness", but this collection of 10 originals from Ami Williamson comes with her insisting she "wanted to write songs about things in life that typically go unrecognised and can be under-valued".

So she sings about the importance of the joys and innocence of childhood (Don't Grow Up So Fast); empathy with girlfriends (Girlfriends); the timeless attractiveness of pearls (Pearls); the beauty of quilts and quilting (The Quilt); the desire to elicit approval from parents (Proud); and a daughter's admiration for her famous father (Your Biggest Fan).

The end result is an album that has a tender centre, but is wonderfully honest in the same way that Loudon Wainwright III makes simplicity so potent and resonant.

It is sweet (acoustic guitar, lots of strings and dulcet vocals), intensely Australian, romantic in an old fashioned and very rural kind of way, and, like her father's music (did I mention she is the daughter of John Williamson?), designed to touch the sentimental and authentically Australian part of our psyche.

You'd be a brave person to say you were not touched by this, true blue.